Longstanding traditions around land and its use within and between families and amongst men and women are up for renegotiation in post-land reform Zimbabwe. Young people must balance cultural norms – sometimes insisted on by their elders – with the necessities of providing for the next generation in highly land-constrained settings
Changes in inheritance patterns, for example, are occurring in the land reform areas, resulting in a reinvention of ‘tradition’. The ‘traditional’ approach is that male children inherit parents’ land, with the youngest getting preference. Female children are expected to get married and following their husbands and get land through the marriage contract. These ‘traditions’ have changed. Today, the imperative is to find a child who is willing and able to take on a farm. Whether this is a son or daughter or their respective ages/birth order matters much less than the practical question of who will farm the resettlement plot in the future.
So, for example, we see daughters inheriting land and taking on farms, married or not, especially when sons are absent, sometimes out of the country. Absent male children may continue to engage with a farm through ‘projects’ that are notionally associated with them, but it sometimes is their sisters who run the farm, maybe supporting elderly parents or taking over completely following their deaths. In such cases, sisters’ role can be seen as ‘keeping’ the land for the brothers. The case of MN is illustrative of this dynamic.
Case 1: MN, Wondedzo Wares, Masvingo
I was born in 1988 in Nyajena, but grew up at Gorondondo in Gutu, where my mother hailed. Following the death of my father in 1998, my mother returned to her natal home. So, as the last-born in a family of 11, I returned with my mother and the rest of my siblings remained in the care of my father’s relatives. In the year 2000, my mother joined jambanja and got land here. I remained in Gorondondo while attending school and later joined my mother in 2003 when a school was opened here. I completed form 4 in 2008, but I had to repeat in 2009 as I did not do well. We (school-going children) at the time were severely affected by the hyper-inflation as teachers were not coming to teach us most of the time. I managed to pass 5 ‘O’ levels, but without English on my second attempt. My mother passed away in 2010. Since then, I have been looking after the plot while working as a clerk at Wondedzo Secondary school. With my wages, I bought a total of 7 cattle – one at a time – but some died due to January disease and I am left with six. I also have two sheep which I bought after selling maize. I am now married and have two children. My husband works in Harare as a garden boy, and he is from Mhondoro, but comes during holidays or I sometimes go there. I now work as a clerk at Mazare Secondary School in Masvingo district, but I come here during weekends and holidays. I inherited 3 ha from my mother, where I engage in dryland cropping. Most of my siblings passed away, and I have three surviving brothers and a sister who is married else. Two of my brothers have their own homesteads in Nyajena, but one has not yet built a homestead and works in Chiredzi. I expect that my brother (without a homestead) will take over the plot one day. In fact, my mother said that he should take-over the farm.
In Shona and Ndebele culture, the last-born son is usually expected to remain in the parents’ homestead and would inherit the parents’ homestead when they pass on. His sisters and elder brothers should leave the homestead and set up their homesteads elsewhere or where they are married in the case of female siblings. The youngest son is expected to provide for the aged parents. However, we see this pattern changing too. Some parents prefer children who were showing commitment to farming and making contribution in caring for their parents, despite their gender or position at birth. As one parent commented:
I have three sons. Before my husband passed on, he told them that whoever who shows a commitment to farming and looks after us will remain in the homestead and inherit it when we die. So, the second-born son (TM, born 1990) showed interests and even built a house here (which still stood uncompleted). However, he is in South Africa and last came back 2016 and does not send any remittances to me. I hear that he is not working and struggling. If he gets money, he spends it on alcohol and his health has also deteriorated because of alcohol abuse. Unlike TM, my first-born son, SB (born 1989, who also works in South Africa), has been committed to the homestead and looks after me. He comes every December with his family to farm. He has invested in cattle that we use as draft power. I don’t want him to leave the homestead. He has already built his two-bedroomed brick and tin house and kitchen within the homestead. He does the farming now, and I no longer have vigour and I am asthmatic. So, he is the “father” now.
This is in line with recent findings in Chivi, where unmarried/separated female children who make contributions in caring for their parents are granted land rights and burial privileges. These are seen as “new sons”. As the paper notes, “These new female-sons’ acts of service earned them special rights ahead of other siblings.”
Reimagining institutions for a new generation
The ‘traditional’ institutions of land allocation and inheritance are being inherited for a new generation. Old norms that prevent women taking on land independently or children other than the youngest son inheriting are being abandoned in favour of a more pragmatic approach. With limited land available, those who took over the land at land reform are looking for the best guardian of their inheritance, and this may be a daughter or an older son. Traditions are never fixed, and as land use transforms so do the institutions that govern it.
This is the fifth blog in a series exploring young people and land in post-land reform Zimbabwe. The blog has been written by Ian Scoones and Tapiwa Chatikobo, with inputs from Godfrey Mahofa (data analysis), Felix Murimbarimba (field lead) and Jacob Mahenehene (field assistant), amongst others. This blog first appeared on Zimbabweland